Virtua Striker 2 Ver.2000.1 is the Dreamcast port of the Naomi title that was released early last year. The original Virtua Striker was released in 1994 and like most of SEGA's arcade games it revolutionised the way in which games of this genre would be made. Sega has once again set the standard. Just like Virtua Fighter and Virtua Racing, Virtua Striker turned into the game that all other soccer games tried to emulate but failed both in graphics and in gameplay.

Graphics

The best graphics in a soccer game ever. The fact that Virtua Striker 2 was first made on Model 3 a couple of years ago shows that it was way ahead of its time as it has yet to be surpassed. Then player models look as good as the renders on the front cover. They are of different height and body size to make them look like their real life counterparts. Who says you need a FIFA license. They even have adidas soccer boots. The uniforms aren't the same as in real life (except for the Japanese team) but they look close enough and in some cases better. Maybe adidas designed them themselves. The ball is the adidas tricolore that was used in France '98. The level of detail in this game is amazing and only becomes apparent after spending a lot of time playing it. The stadiums are the most spectacular stadiums ever to be created for a game. The designers of Stadium Australia could learn something just from watching this game. Everything from the segregated fans, flood lights, colored seats, fences, electronic scoreboards to different grass designs and 3d corner posts.

The fans also deserve a mention. Each one is made up of a flat polygon, which allows them to move independently and create various crowd effects such as Mexican hand waves, and rows of people jumping up and down in unison. They are perfectly segregated into each half of the stadium but this is a Virtua City remember, so I guess it's OK. The motion capture in this game really stands out (especially at 60 fps which 98% of the game runs at). The players in this game do just about anything that has been done by a soccer player in real life and then some. Here are some of the more obscure things the players can be seen doing. Having a drink after scoring a goal. Hitting the unfortunate team member who happened to score an own goal. Doing some funky celebration dance after scoring a goal (FC SEGA in particular has some celebrations that make Michael Jackson look normal). Another visual treat that is worth mentioning is the VMU animations. There's just so many. Sure, they're all of the same gradient but how many other games have VMU pictures to mimic everything that's going on in the game as it happens? Very cool!